Chris writes: > Pardon my ignorance but in a conversation a while ago someone asked this > listserve if upgrading to 100mbs ethernet on an older PCI powermac lab would > be > worth it to improve terminal performance. > > Most people seemed to say 'NO' because of the limits of the PCI bus.
100 Mb/s needs a 3 MHz PCI bus, or maybe 10 MHz if you allow for a seriously inefficient motherboard. > -what is the speed of the PCI bus on an older powermac? (is is 50% bus > speed?) > > -If I clocked up my PowerMac 7300/180 (45mhz bus) to 175 to 200 mhz on a > 50mhz+ > bus would I be getting a faster PCI bus as well? Your bus is most likely one of: a. locked to 33 MHz b. at 22.5 MHz, due to a 2:1 clock ratio c. at 30 MHz, due to a 3:2 clock ratio Speeds above 33 MHz are not allowed. PC hardware commonly ran PCI at 25, 30, and 33 MHz. > -What about the onboard video and ethernet? Is that effected performance wise > by the increased bus > speed? You might get faster crashes.
